He went to Sydney at the age of 18, where he worked in a warehouse and established a reputation as a talented athlete in quarter-mile and hurdle racing.

He later moved to Queensland, where he was the proprietor of the Kedron Park Racecourse and established and promoted night-time athletics events in Brisbane.

In 1912, he funded the new Labor-aligned newspaper The Daily Standard and served as its managing director until his election to parliament in 1913.

[13] Sharpe died at the Jenner Private Hospital in Sydney in 1935 from influenza, although he had been unwell since December 1934.

He was cremated at Rookwood Crematorium and his ashes sent to Brisbane to be buried alongside his late wife in Toowong Cemetery.